March 4, 2006 - Longwood 8 Rider 3 / Longwood 8 Rider 5
March 4, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Baseball
Longwood University 8, Rider University 3
Longwood University 8, Rider University 5
FARMVILLE, VA-The Broncs lost a doubleheader at Longwood Saturday. "I’m not sure Longwood is better than us, but we were out-played today," said Rider head coach Barry Davis.
Seniors Bryan Wagner (Flemington, N.J./North Hunterdon), Mike Poalise (Hammonton, N.J./Hammonton) and Tom Letizia (Fair Lawn, N.J./Fair Lawn) all had four hits each on the day for Rider (0-5). Letizia had a pair of doubles and now has 98 career hits.
Junior Scott Knazek (Browns Mills, N.J./Pemberton) had two hits and three RBI in the doubleheader.
"We hit the ball today, we had 19 hits, but we scattered the hits," said Davis. "We never bunched them."
In the first game, Longwood pitcher Brian McCullough struck out nine in seven innings. "He threw very well," said Davis. "We struggled against McCullough." Rider did manage 11 hits in the nine-inning opener.
In the second game, a seven inning contest, Rider took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Wagner doubled and scored on a single by Letizia. The Broncs tied the score at 4-4 in the top of the fourth inning when Letizia, Knazek and freshman Sean Olson (Vineland, N.J./St. Augustine Prep) all doubled, and Poalise hit an RBI single.
Longwood (10-7) came right back and scored four runs in the fifth inning. "We played a single into an inside the park home run," Davis said.
"We had opportunities, we had the bases loaded with the tying run on first and didn’t take advantage," said Davis. "Longwood made some errors but we didn’t capitalize."
Rider plays the third and final game of the series Sunday. "We played well last week, but not today," Davis said. "We took a step backward. Hopefully on Sunday we’ll take a step or two forward."
-RU-
